22 Akwa Ibom PDP aspirants threaten to defect

Twenty-two aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants in Akwa Ibom State have threatened to defect to opposition parties over the party’s primaries.

The aggrieved aspirants cited what they called underhand dealings in the primaries, which led to the emergence of Udom Emmanuel as its governorship candidate.

The aspirants, who stormed the Abuja national secretariat of the party on Tuesday night, accused the Governor Godswill Akpabio of allegedly manipulating the process and shutting them out of the race.

After waiting in vain for several hours to table their complaints before the party’s National Chairman Adamu Mu’azu, the aggrieved aspirants distributed copies of their petition to reporters.

In the petition, jointly signed by the aspirants and read by one of them, Assam Assam, the aggrieved aspirants alleged, among others, that the venue and authentic list of delegates used in the primaries were changed at the last minute.

The petition, which was addressed to the chairman of the state’s governorship electoral panel, Prince Bola Oyebowale, noted that ward congresses, through which the delegates ought to have been elected, did not hold in any part of the state.

The petition said: “Despite the plethora of lists, there was no accreditation of delegates by your electoral panel to certify the individuals who were being trafficked in heavily guarded buses to the venue of the congress from the Government House in Uyo.

“It should also be noted that all the purported delegates from the state were invited to the Government House where they were addressed, threatened, intimidated and induced with N1 million each to ensure compliance, by voting for the governor’s preferred candidate, Mr. Udom Gabriel Emmanuel.

“The authenticity of the delegates’ list is the condition precedent to a validly conducted governorship primaries. We shall, therefore, not consent to the legitimisation of the charade that exercise was.

“It is curious and unconscionable that in a clear violation of the guidelines of the party for primaries and the Electoral Act, the contrived list of ad hoc delegates was populated by political appointees of government and civil servants.

“This impunity and disregard for the electoral process and the law cannot be ignored. We, therefore, call on you to resolve all these anomalies before the commencement of the governorship primaries.”

In the petition, which was copied to Mu’azu and President Goodluck Jonathan, the security agencies and the Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), the aspirants warned the PDP of the consequences of ignoring their complaints.

The petitioners alleged that the authentic delegates were chased out of the venue of the primaries.

They added that those who voted at the venue came with pre-filled ballot papers in their pockets.

They said: “We feel it is in the best interest of the party and the state to resolve this matter urgently and conclusively too. We insist on the cancellation of that fraudulent exercise and the conduct of fresh primaries in the state.”